Reporting Overall Performance on the CSA

A scale score and an achievement level are provided for each student. These achievement levels describe how student performance relates to standards of Spanish language proficiency established in the 2025 California Spanish Assessment (CSA) standard setting study.

A student in grades three through eight is assigned to one of three overall achievement levels:

• Level 1—Students at Level 1 demonstrate a limited degree of grade-appropriate Spanish literacy in reading, writing, and listening, and require substantial development before being considered on track for being literate in Spanish by high school graduation.
• Level 2—Students at Level 2 demonstrate a moderate degree of grade-appropriate Spanish literacy in reading, writing, and listening, but require further development to be on track for being literate in Spanish by high school graduation.
• Level 3—Students at Level 3 demonstrate a high degree of grade-appropriate Spanish literacy in reading, writing, and listening, and are on track for being literate in Spanish by high school graduation.

A student in high school is assigned to one of three overall achievement levels:

• Level 1—Students at Level 1 demonstrate a limited degree of grade-appropriate Spanish literacy in reading, writing, listening, and speaking, and require substantial development before being considered on track for being literate in Spanish by high school graduation.
• Level 2—Students at Level 2 demonstrate a moderate degree of grade-appropriate Spanish literacy in reading, writing, listening, and speaking, but require further development to be on track for being literate in Spanish by high school graduation.
• Level 3—Students at Level 3 demonstrate a high degree of grade-appropriate Spanish literacy in reading, writing, listening, and speaking, and are on track for being literate in Spanish by high school graduation.

Student achievement levels are assigned on the basis of threshold scores. Each threshold should be understood as an approximate performance boundary rather than an exact point.

The overall achievement levels are categorical labels associated with specific threshold scores. These thresholds vary by grade level and are presented in the California Spanish Assessment subsection of Appendix A: Scale Score Ranges in the Scoring and Reporting Guide. Threshold scores were established during the 2025 standard setting study and approved by the California State Board of Education (SBE) to define performance expectations across grades three through eight and high school. More information about achievement level descriptors and scale score thresholds can be found in the “Scores and Results Reporting” section of the California Department of Education CSA web page and in the California Spanish Assessment 2024–25 Technical Report.

In addition to overall scale scores and achievement levels, for high school, composite-level scale scores and three achievement levels (table 1) are reported for oral literacy (listening + speaking) and written literacy (reading + writing).

These domain levels describe performance on groups of items representing each domain and are reported using three levels—Beginning, Progressing, and Well Developed—as presented in table 2.

The scale score ranges for each overall achievement level vary by grade level or grade band. The CSA threshold scores approved by the SBE in September 2025 are presented in table 3.

The CSA scale score ranges for high school oral literacy and written literacy composites are presented in table 4.